Jesper Samuelsson hopes to become Vita Hasten's second Red Wing

DetroitRedWings.com's Christy Hammond spoke to Red Wings prospect Jesper Samuelsson recently (ditto here), discussing his hopes to become Detroit's second graduate from Vita Hasten of the Swedish third division:

July 13, Hockeytown Blog: Question: You've played for the same team as Jonathan Ericsson (Hasten) and now play for the same team that Henrik Zetterberg did (Timra). What's it like? Do they talk about those guys very much?

Jesper Samuelsson: "Yeah, in Timra they talk about Zetterberg. He's like a big role model for all of those young guys."

Question: Do you feel more pressure because you're coming from teams that these Red Wings players have come from?

Samuelsson: "No. I've seen how much time Jon has put down in the training hall so it helps me in that way to see how much you must train hard all the time and think about what you're doing."

Question: Is it encouraging to know that someone came from Hasten and is now playing in the NHL?

Samuelsson: "It's good to know that he came from such a small town and played here (Detroit)."

Samuelsson has a sneaky shot, but he told Hammond that he still wants to tweak it:

Question: Is there something you particularly want to work on like your skating, shooting, or stickwork?

Samuelsson: "Shooting. You can improve all of those stuff in your game and you have to if you want to play in the NHL and want to work hard."